by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2020

Principality of Lippe: Originally called Lippe-Detmold, the Principality of Lippe came into existence in 1789 when it was raised from a County within the Holy Roman Empire to a Principality. Leopold I, Count of Lippe-Detmold became the first Prince of Lippe.

At the end of World War I, Leopold IV, the last Prince of Lippe, was forced to abdicate on November 12, 1918. However, Leopold negotiated a treaty with the new government that allowed his family to remain in Lippe. Today the territory that encompassed the Principality of Lippe is located in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

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Leopold I, Prince of Lippe (Friedrich Wilhelm Leopold) was born in Detmold, County of Lippe-Detmold, now in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia on December 2, 1767. He was the only child of Simon August, Count of Lippe-Detmold (1727 – 1782) and his second wife Princess Maria Leopoldine of Anhalt-Dessau (1746 – 1769).

Leopold’s father Simon August, Count of Lippe-Detmold married four times and had a child from each marriage except his fourth marriage to Princess Christine of Solms-Braunfels (1744 – 1823). Therefore, Leopold had two half-siblings:

From his father’s first marriage to Princess Polyxena Louise of Nassau-Weilburg (1733 – 1764):

• Princess Wilhelmine Caroline of Lippe-Detmold (1751 – 1753), died in childhood

From his father’s third marriage to Princess Casimire of Anhalt-Dessau (1749 – 1778), sister of Leopold’s mother:

• Prince Casimir August of Lippe-Detmold (1777 – 1809), unmarried

Leopold’s mother died when he was only two years old and his father married two more times. His father’s third wife Princess Casimire of Anhalt-Dessau, who was his mother’s sister and therefore his maternal aunt, was important in his childhood but died when Leopold was eleven-year-old. Two years after Casimire’s death, Leopold’s father married for a fourth time to Princess Christine of Solms-Braunfels who survived her stepson Leopold by 21 years. Leopold’s father Simon August, Count of Lippe died on May 1, 1782, and fourteen-year-old Leopold succeeded him as Count of Lippe-Detmold.

Leopold was seen as a difficult child. He had difficulty learning, rebelled against his upbringing, and was stubborn. Because of this, he was sent to his maternal uncle Leopold III, Duke of Anhalt-Dessau, the brother of his mother Marie Leopoldine and his stepmother and aunt Casimire. In 1785, Leopold was sent to the University of Leipzig in the Electorate of Saxony, now in the German state of Saxony. However, in both Dessau and Leipzig, the opinion about Leopold was the same: lack of strength of character, lack of interest, lack of concentration, and a tendency to mental disorders.

In 1789, the County of Lippe-Detmold within the Holy Roman Empire was raised to the Principality of Lippe and Leopold became the first Prince of Lippe. When Leopold reached his 21st birthday in 1789, he took over the reins of government of the Principality of Lippe. However, by the next year, Leopold’s mental disorders interfered in his role as reigning prince and he was deemed incapacitated by the Reichskammergericht (Imperial Chamber Court), one of the two highest judicial institutions in the Holy Roman Empire, and placed under guardianship.

In 1795, the guardianship was conditionally lifted after Leopold’s condition improved. Leopold had proposed marriage repeatedly to Princess Pauline of Anhalt-Bernburg, daughter of Friedrich Albrecht, the reigning Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg and Princess Louise Albertine of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön and Pauline had rejected him. Finally, after the improvement in his mental condition, Pauline agreed to marry Leopold. On January 2, 1796, at Ballenstadt Castle in Ballenstedt, Principality of Anhalt-Bernburg, now in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, Leopold and Pauline were married.

Leopold and Pauline had two sons and a daughter who survived for only one day:

• Leopold II, Prince of Lippe (1796 – 1851), married Princess Emilie of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, had six sons and three daughters including three reigning Princes of Lippe
• Prince Friedrich (1797 – 1854), unmarried, served in the Imperial and Royal Army in the Austrian Empire
• Princess Luise (born and died 1800)

Because of Leopold’s tenuous mental condition, Pauline became his governmental adviser and colleague, staying mostly in the background and avoiding anything that could be interpreted as exceeding her duties. Within the next few years, Leopold developed intestinal tuberculosis and his mental disorders returned with memory loss. Leopold I, Prince of Lippe died on November 5, 1802, aged 34, in Detmold, Principality of Lippe, now in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. He was initially buried at the Church of the Redeemer (link in German) in Detmold. His remains were later moved to the Mausoleum on the Büchenberg (link in German) in Detmold after the mausoleum’s completion in 1855. As Leopold I’s son and successor Leopold II, Prince of Lippe was just five-years-old, his mother Pauline very capably acted as Regent of the Principality of Lippe until 1820.

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Lippe Resources at Unofficial Royalty

• Principality of Lippe Index
• Profiles: Princes and Consorts of Lippe
• Lippe Royal Burial Sites

Works Cited

• De.wikipedia.org. 2020. Leopold I. (Lippe). [online] Available at: <https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_I._(Lippe)> [Accessed 4 October 2020].
• De.wikipedia.org. 2020. Simon August (Lippe). [online] Available at: <https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_August_(Lippe)> [Accessed 4 October 2020].
• En.wikipedia.org. 2020. Princess Pauline Of Anhalt-Bernburg. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Pauline_of_Anhalt-Bernburg> [Accessed 4 October 2020].
• En.wikipedia.org. 2020. Leopold I, Prince Of Lippe. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_I,_Prince_of_Lippe> [Accessed 4 October 2020].